EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE ADOPTION AND UTILIZATION OF MOBILE DEVICES FOR ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AMONGST DISTANCE EDUCATION STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

The study investigated the adoption and utilization of mobile devices for academic activities amongst distance education students in Nigeria. The study had three objectives and three null hypotheses. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 55,746 final year students of six distance learning institutions in 2013/2014 academic session in Nigeria. The researchers adopted stratified sampling and simple random sampling to select 940 students used for this study. A structured questionnaire titled ‘Students Use of Mobile Phones in Distance Education in Nigeria (SUMPDEN) ’ and Individual Innovativeness Scale (IIS) of Hurt, Joseph, & Cook 1977 were used for data collection. The instrument was validated by four experts in educational research. The reliability of the instruments was determined by conducting a pilot test using 94 students of National Teachers Institute, Kaduna Study Centre, using Test-Retest method. Data obtained from the pilot study were coded and analyzed. Cronbach Reliability coefficient obtained was 0.77. The instruments were administered personally by the researchers with the assistance of five trained research assistants. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment of Correlation. The results showed among others that, students of Open and Distance Education have no requisite skills on usage of mobile devices for academic activities in Nigeria. Based on the outcome it was concluded that students in Open and Distance Education in Nigeria do not maximize the usefulness of a mobile learning system that provides access to learning materials that would help improve learning outcome amongst students. The researchers recommended among others that government and stakeholders in distance education should create awareness programmes that will enable students to acknowledge the importance of mobile phone technology in distance education institutions in Nigeria.